eminentlylapable
2009-06-07 20:03:56 UTC
SIX-YEAR WAR SEEN AS MISERABLE U.S. FAILURE!
Citizens laugh at planted amateurish U.S. public affairs "good news"
stories!
---------------------------------
"A High-Priced Media Campaign That Iraqis Aren't Buying"
"Many in Baghdad Dismiss Effort as U.S. Propaganda"
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 7, 2009
BAGHDAD -- The pages of "Baghdad Now," an Arabic-language newspaper,
portray a country on the upswing.
Iraqi soldiers and policemen are proud, capable civil servants who
take weapons off the streets and doggedly pursue criminals. Iraqis of
all sectarian backgrounds work in unison. The Iraqi government
delivers.
The paper's editorials hail democracy. Fashion pages chronicle the
latest fads in Beirut and Kuwait. There's little news of the more than
130,000 American troops who remain in the country.
That the paper has no publicly known editor, no bylines and no ads is
no mistake. It is part of America's huge psychological warfare
campaign to influence Iraqis' behavior and attitudes.
"The millions spent on this is wasted money," Ziyad al-Aajeely,
director of Iraq's nonprofit Journalistic Freedom Observatory, said as
he flipped through a recent edition of Baghdad Now. "Nobody reads
this."
U.S. military officials and contractors have spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on billboards, pamphlets and TV and radio airtime
in Iraq over the past six years to burnish the U.S. military's image,
marginalize extremists, promote democracy and foster reconciliation.
Some campaigns have been designed to encourage Iraqis to turn their
backs on insurgent groups and cooperate with the U.S. military and
Iraq's security forces. Others have loftier themes: democratic values,
sectarian reconciliation and national pride.
In a country where few things work well, where security forces have a
checkered reputation and sectarian tension remains high, many Iraqis
have grown dismissive of the flood of propaganda they know or assume
comes from the U.S. government.
U.S. officials declined to be interviewed about the evolution and
perceived effectiveness of psychological warfare initiatives in Iraq.
Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan
and Pakistan, recently told lawmakers that the administration is
working on a strategic communications plan for that region that draws
on the lessons of Iraq.
"This is an area that has been woefully under-resourced," Holbrooke
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. "The strategic
communications plan -- including electronic media, telecom and radio
-- will include options on how best to counter the propaganda that is
key to the insurgency's terror campaign."
A Newspaper Ignored
Baghdad Now is not labeled as a U.S. military publication, although
the military acknowledges it is produced by an Army psychological
operations unit and distributed for free by soldiers. Piles of it are
left at entrances to the Green Zone for passersby to pick up.
The headlines in a recent edition paid homage to a newly promoted
police chief in Baghdad, reported that the implementation of a
security agreement between Iraq and the United States is going
swimmingly, and highlighted efforts at the Interior Ministry to root
out corruption. A front-page ad showed Iraqis marching down a street,
apparently protesting. Under the image was the statement: "The
security forces protect your right to demonstrate peacefully."
Another edition included a cartoon showing a maimed insurgent leaving
Iraq as a smiling refugee returns.
"This is so wrong," Aajeely said with a chuckle. "The people in charge
of this are not professional journalists.
"They do it the same way the prior regime did its newspapers," he
added, referring to publications that hewed to the narrative Saddam
Hussein wanted to push.
A U.S. Army officer in Baghdad, speaking on the condition of anonymity
so he could express criticism of the product, said the Iraqi soldiers
at his outpost mock the publication and are more interested in the
editorially independent Department of Defense newspaper, Stars and
Stripes, and in the magazines soldiers get in the mail.
"They say it's childish," the officer said. "Baghdad Now makes a good
fuel source at the Iraqi checkpoints."
During the early years of the war, most U.S. psyops campaigns were
closely linked with specific military objectives, such as asking
people to cooperate when soldiers searched their homes. In recent
years, the campaigns have become more sophisticated and have taken on
broader themes that are in line with the U.S. objective of leaving
behind a stable, democratic Iraq.
Public Relations Contracts
In 2004, reeling from the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal and
wrestling a burgeoning insurgency, the U.S. military hired public
relations firms -- including some that were apparently established to
compete for the contracts -- to improve its image.
One of them, Arlington-based Lincoln Group, came under fire in 2005
for paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories conceived and written
by U.S. military officials. The communications firms have come up with
campaigns that military officials have said are designed to appear as
Iraqi-generated initiatives.
Pentagon officials say the campaigns allow them to push back against
insurgent groups that have made the media a key battleground.
Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups in Iraq regularly post videos that
feature denunciations of U.S. troops and their presence in Iraq.
Propaganda produced by a group called the Future Iraq Assembly has
become omnipresent. The group's slick Web site says it is "an
independent, non-governmental organization, comprised of a number of
scholars, businesspersons, and activists who share a common and firm
belief in freedom and progress for all the Iraqi people. It is simply
the 'watchful eye' over Iraqi interests."
It lists no members and no contact information other than a generic e-
mail address. A e-mailed request for an interview did not draw a
response, and the military declined to comment on its affiliation with
the group.
"Most people think it's American propaganda," said Wamid Nadmi, a
political science professor at Baghdad University. He said the
messages of hope and political reconciliation are well-intentioned but
disconnected from Iraq's reality.
"There's no talk of the atrocities committed by the local police or
the people who have spent years in prison" without being formally
charged, Nadmi said.
Ridiculed in the Arab World
As'ad AbuKhalil, a political science professor at California State
University who writes the Angry Arab blog, said the campaigns are
ridiculed in the Arab world.
"They have a very crude tone and content, and the narrator sounds like
Saddam's own propagandist," he said. "The Arabic used also is awkward,
clearly translated from English texts most likely drafted in some
office on K Street. One is struck by the extent to which the ads show
Iraqis as Westernized and secularized."
One television campaign produced in 2004 under the title "We stay"
showed a long line of U.S. military vehicles and helicopters fading
into the horizon. A small group of Iraqi children watches as the
contingent disappears. For a few seconds, they appear wary. Then they
smile and start kicking a soccer ball.
An ad launched this year featured Iraqis from different regions
listing the things that united them. The billboard component had a
split image of a man's and a woman's faces, under the words: "Despite
our differences, Iraq unites us."
Of a couple of dozen Iraqis interviewed about the ads, the
overwhelming majority said they find them ineffective.
"All Iraqis know that these organizations are supported" by the U.S.
government "with the aim of normalizing the occupation," said Abdul
Kareem Ahmad, a lawyer in Salahuddin province. "I say to the Future
Iraq organization: If those funds had been given to the poor and the
widows, Iraq would have become a pioneer in social welfare. Millions
of dollars go into the pockets of war profiteers who believe victory
in Iraq can be won through the media using underground movies."
Noor Sabah, an engineer in Fallujah, said her friends and relatives
ridicule the ads.
"These commercials are boring, poor and annoying," she said. "Everyone
knows they're American -- not Iraqi-made."
[Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim, Aziz Alwan, Zaid Sabah and Dalya
Hassan contributed to this report.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060602144.html
Citizens laugh at planted amateurish U.S. public affairs "good news"
stories!
---------------------------------
"A High-Priced Media Campaign That Iraqis Aren't Buying"
"Many in Baghdad Dismiss Effort as U.S. Propaganda"
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 7, 2009
BAGHDAD -- The pages of "Baghdad Now," an Arabic-language newspaper,
portray a country on the upswing.
Iraqi soldiers and policemen are proud, capable civil servants who
take weapons off the streets and doggedly pursue criminals. Iraqis of
all sectarian backgrounds work in unison. The Iraqi government
delivers.
The paper's editorials hail democracy. Fashion pages chronicle the
latest fads in Beirut and Kuwait. There's little news of the more than
130,000 American troops who remain in the country.
That the paper has no publicly known editor, no bylines and no ads is
no mistake. It is part of America's huge psychological warfare
campaign to influence Iraqis' behavior and attitudes.
"The millions spent on this is wasted money," Ziyad al-Aajeely,
director of Iraq's nonprofit Journalistic Freedom Observatory, said as
he flipped through a recent edition of Baghdad Now. "Nobody reads
this."
U.S. military officials and contractors have spent hundreds of
millions of dollars on billboards, pamphlets and TV and radio airtime
in Iraq over the past six years to burnish the U.S. military's image,
marginalize extremists, promote democracy and foster reconciliation.
Some campaigns have been designed to encourage Iraqis to turn their
backs on insurgent groups and cooperate with the U.S. military and
Iraq's security forces. Others have loftier themes: democratic values,
sectarian reconciliation and national pride.
In a country where few things work well, where security forces have a
checkered reputation and sectarian tension remains high, many Iraqis
have grown dismissive of the flood of propaganda they know or assume
comes from the U.S. government.
U.S. officials declined to be interviewed about the evolution and
perceived effectiveness of psychological warfare initiatives in Iraq.
Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan
and Pakistan, recently told lawmakers that the administration is
working on a strategic communications plan for that region that draws
on the lessons of Iraq.
"This is an area that has been woefully under-resourced," Holbrooke
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. "The strategic
communications plan -- including electronic media, telecom and radio
-- will include options on how best to counter the propaganda that is
key to the insurgency's terror campaign."
A Newspaper Ignored
Baghdad Now is not labeled as a U.S. military publication, although
the military acknowledges it is produced by an Army psychological
operations unit and distributed for free by soldiers. Piles of it are
left at entrances to the Green Zone for passersby to pick up.
The headlines in a recent edition paid homage to a newly promoted
police chief in Baghdad, reported that the implementation of a
security agreement between Iraq and the United States is going
swimmingly, and highlighted efforts at the Interior Ministry to root
out corruption. A front-page ad showed Iraqis marching down a street,
apparently protesting. Under the image was the statement: "The
security forces protect your right to demonstrate peacefully."
Another edition included a cartoon showing a maimed insurgent leaving
Iraq as a smiling refugee returns.
"This is so wrong," Aajeely said with a chuckle. "The people in charge
of this are not professional journalists.
"They do it the same way the prior regime did its newspapers," he
added, referring to publications that hewed to the narrative Saddam
Hussein wanted to push.
A U.S. Army officer in Baghdad, speaking on the condition of anonymity
so he could express criticism of the product, said the Iraqi soldiers
at his outpost mock the publication and are more interested in the
editorially independent Department of Defense newspaper, Stars and
Stripes, and in the magazines soldiers get in the mail.
"They say it's childish," the officer said. "Baghdad Now makes a good
fuel source at the Iraqi checkpoints."
During the early years of the war, most U.S. psyops campaigns were
closely linked with specific military objectives, such as asking
people to cooperate when soldiers searched their homes. In recent
years, the campaigns have become more sophisticated and have taken on
broader themes that are in line with the U.S. objective of leaving
behind a stable, democratic Iraq.
Public Relations Contracts
In 2004, reeling from the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal and
wrestling a burgeoning insurgency, the U.S. military hired public
relations firms -- including some that were apparently established to
compete for the contracts -- to improve its image.
One of them, Arlington-based Lincoln Group, came under fire in 2005
for paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories conceived and written
by U.S. military officials. The communications firms have come up with
campaigns that military officials have said are designed to appear as
Iraqi-generated initiatives.
Pentagon officials say the campaigns allow them to push back against
insurgent groups that have made the media a key battleground.
Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups in Iraq regularly post videos that
feature denunciations of U.S. troops and their presence in Iraq.
Propaganda produced by a group called the Future Iraq Assembly has
become omnipresent. The group's slick Web site says it is "an
independent, non-governmental organization, comprised of a number of
scholars, businesspersons, and activists who share a common and firm
belief in freedom and progress for all the Iraqi people. It is simply
the 'watchful eye' over Iraqi interests."
It lists no members and no contact information other than a generic e-
mail address. A e-mailed request for an interview did not draw a
response, and the military declined to comment on its affiliation with
the group.
"Most people think it's American propaganda," said Wamid Nadmi, a
political science professor at Baghdad University. He said the
messages of hope and political reconciliation are well-intentioned but
disconnected from Iraq's reality.
"There's no talk of the atrocities committed by the local police or
the people who have spent years in prison" without being formally
charged, Nadmi said.
Ridiculed in the Arab World
As'ad AbuKhalil, a political science professor at California State
University who writes the Angry Arab blog, said the campaigns are
ridiculed in the Arab world.
"They have a very crude tone and content, and the narrator sounds like
Saddam's own propagandist," he said. "The Arabic used also is awkward,
clearly translated from English texts most likely drafted in some
office on K Street. One is struck by the extent to which the ads show
Iraqis as Westernized and secularized."
One television campaign produced in 2004 under the title "We stay"
showed a long line of U.S. military vehicles and helicopters fading
into the horizon. A small group of Iraqi children watches as the
contingent disappears. For a few seconds, they appear wary. Then they
smile and start kicking a soccer ball.
An ad launched this year featured Iraqis from different regions
listing the things that united them. The billboard component had a
split image of a man's and a woman's faces, under the words: "Despite
our differences, Iraq unites us."
Of a couple of dozen Iraqis interviewed about the ads, the
overwhelming majority said they find them ineffective.
"All Iraqis know that these organizations are supported" by the U.S.
government "with the aim of normalizing the occupation," said Abdul
Kareem Ahmad, a lawyer in Salahuddin province. "I say to the Future
Iraq organization: If those funds had been given to the poor and the
widows, Iraq would have become a pioneer in social welfare. Millions
of dollars go into the pockets of war profiteers who believe victory
in Iraq can be won through the media using underground movies."
Noor Sabah, an engineer in Fallujah, said her friends and relatives
ridicule the ads.
"These commercials are boring, poor and annoying," she said. "Everyone
knows they're American -- not Iraqi-made."
[Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim, Aziz Alwan, Zaid Sabah and Dalya
Hassan contributed to this report.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060602144.html
